I rarely get torn up for celebrities deaths but his deeply affects me. It feels like I’ve lost a friend. I feel devastated for his child and family.

His shows were one of the few times I saw my cultures treated with humanity and dignity in popular Western media. No other American media has given as much love to Palestine, Lebanon and Armenia. His episode on Beirut in 2006 when war broke out with Israel hits the closest to home, I was there at the same time. He was an empathic observer not an Orientalist gaze.

I will always have nothing but respect for him, he will be sorely missed.